Burning Man is an art-and-music festival celebrating radical self-expression and self-reliance in the setting of a temporary city just north of Reno, Nevada. At approximately 60,000 citizens, it is Nevada’s third-largest city for one week out of every year, and it is a true city, complete with a Department of Public Works, a DMV (the Department of Mutant Vehicles, regulating the creative content of the city’s art cars), and its own highly skilled volunteer law enforcement agency, the Black Rock Rangers. The city of Black Rock springs out of a certain dimension of the collective consciousness like a mirage, built and then just as quickly unbuilt, or, more famously, burned in celebration on the immense flats of a prehistoric lake bed commonly known as the Playa.
For most Burners, it’s a real challenge to explain what it is to someone who hasn’t yet attended. For some, it’s a giant rave, a massive experiment in hedonism, a crazed gathering of Mad Max fans, and a sea of dirty hippies reveling in merriment and dust. For others, it’s the greatest social experiment in recent history. For still others, the Playa forms the setting for the world’s greatest large-scale art gallery and an unparalleled opportunity to attend lectures by some of the planet’s most cutting-edge thinkers and creators – even the TED conference has a presence at Burning Man. It is a chance for some to reinvent themselves, to take a new name, a new face, and a wholly new way of relating to other people. In its 26-year history, it has been all of those things and much, much more to the hordes of teachers, architects, expats, farmers, lawyers, dancers, doctors, designers, marketing execs, CFOs, booksellers, Silicon Valley heavyweights, lovers, fire freaks, skydivers, and dreamers who make the annual pilgrimage to Black Rock City.
“Where does tea play into all this?” you may ask. Since a central tenet of Burning Man is that all commerce is a pure expression of gift culture, tea is very apropos in Black Rock City. I had been invited by my partner to be a part of a camp that contributed a beautiful, modular geometric palace called The Otic Oasis, commissioned to be the defined public silent space of Black Rock City – the only large-scale structure built in an area where amplified sound is forbidden. The Oasis, designed by genius Culver City architect Gregg Fleishman, was a multi-story structure made entirely of tension-fitted wooden pieces that resemble a human-scale beehive in its proportions and absolutely natural quality.
In agreement with the Oasis, we rose before sunrise every morning and made our way out to the Oasis to pour gongfu tea at daybreak. Knowing that Black Rock Desert isn’t a forgiving environment in general and that yixing clay would not make it through the week, we brought glass and ceramic teaware, which held up just fine. Every morning, as the moon set over Granite Peak and the sun shot its first dazzling rays over the eastern horizon, we sat quietly, boiled spring water in a glass kettle over an open flame, and shared a most beautiful variety of Oolongs and Puerhs with whomever happened to be present – early birds awake to catch the sunrise from the top of the Oasis as well as stragglers still awake from the night before. Each morning saw new faces, between five and ten at any given moment, and we would drink tea together for several hours. A favorite tea was a wild Puerh from the late nineties, which brought the extraordinary aroma and taste of a primeval forest to a place that hasn’t seen the growth of trees in millennia. On the last morning of the week, I poured a 2002 Shou Puerh brick for 16 people, the largest group of the week.
This was my fourth year attending the festival and the first year successfully sharing a tea ceremony. There were other camps and individuals inhabiting the city that shared tea throughout the week, and it seems as though it is catching on as a choice gift to share – there is nothing more welcoming on a long and dusty night than the nourishment of tea in good company. The spirit of giving is very strong at Burning Man, and tea was received with large smiles and humble hearts.
Additional editing by Pamela Samuelson.
What an awesome setting to share tea in. I have a couple of friends who have gone the last 3 years and I will have to ask them to keep on the lookout for you!
Thank you Naomi!
What an amazing experience. I’ve been hearing about Burning Man since moving to the Pacific Northwest. It is on my bucket list. I’m delighted to hear that tea has a presence there. It is so fitting that tea become part of this creative, inspiring amalgamation of people. How blessed you were to have this opportunity to share your tea treasures with this group. It sounds like a sacred experience. I look forward to seeing you there, perhaps next year.
Indeed Michelle, thank you. It was truly wonderful. Rarely do I muster tr discipline to drink tea at sunrise. It’s rewarding on infinite levels.
Great post… You made me really miss the essence of the playa, and it’s been 10 years since I’ve been! A cup of great tea would truly be an oasis in that desert. Cheers to you!
Thank you Jessica <3
Excellent topic for an article. Have many friends that head out to the burning man. Like many festivals this is a great way to connect with people from all warps of life. What an a great idea to make tea and share a beautiful moment.
Any pictures anywhere?
Many thanks.
I enjoyed some magical moments with tea on the playa this year. I was so inspired that I hope to bring much tea to share with all of the playa next year. I am starting a direct from grower tea distribution company called Tealet. We may even do a theme camp and I’d love to bring some of the tea farmers I’m friends with to come pour tea for others on the playa.
Oh, for the love of The Beehive! I was lucky enough to literally “drop in” on one of your morning tea parties in the Octic Oasis at the end of the week. It was a perfect morning.
The Beehive (as I will forever remember it) was my favorite space on the Playa this year. I discovered it under the light of the full moon during a midnight wander and it became a center of little miracles during my Burn.
Overcome by the need to share the Octic Oasis with the Love I’d met the previous year, I was compelled to make a beeline from the Hive straight to the Temple – where I found him in prayer on the floor. I was reunited with my Love for one beautiful day.
I brought an architect Friend to discover and enjoy it because she told me “Every bee is an architect.” While at the top, I lost track of my Friend and quietly asked the person below me to pass a sentence down through the Hive to find her. After 10 minutes of quiet collective-telephone my Friend emerged from the base, surprised, and called out to me at the top with the exact message I had whispered to a stranger. The Hive erupted in applause.
And at the end of the week I returned to the Beehive to say goodbye to this Octic Oasis with gratitude. As I lowered myself through an opening from one chamber into another I landed in the center of a tea party. I was invited to join and spent the remainder of the morning enjoying tea and hospitality. You shared a beautiful, sacred, ceremonious, light-hearted and friendly experience with me on my last visit to that glorious structure.
Many blessings to you Adam, and to the rest of your Hive. Thank you.
Thanks for the note Yvonne! <3